


Building

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: A Thousand Ways [19]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels, First Kiss, M/M, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, Which Is Basically The Main Theme For This Whole Show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 04:24:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17501522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: "I can promise you Rachel and I won't be building anything more than we already have. We're raising kids together, but I finally figured out she's not the person I want to spend the rest of my life with."Danny and Steve finally admit some things. (Post-ep for 9X13, with references to 9X12.)





	Building

**Author's Note:**

> I keep telling myself that I've written my last fix-it of 5-0's current canon, and then things like this happen. Sigh.

Nearly drowning wasn't easy, no matter how cavalier he'd been to Danny on the boat, and it was harder on his body than it had been a decade and a half ago. Thankfully, Junior was out buying sushi for Tani, and Danny was home fussing over Grace. For a few solid hours, he could let himself look exhausted without worrying anyone else.

He was half asleep on the couch, a documentary about the science of ancient Egypt on TV he was only sort of paying attention to, when he heard a key in the lock and the door opening. "Before you say anything, I brought you matzo ball soup," Danny said, sailing in as if he owned the place. Steve tried to scramble into a position vaguely resembling alertness, but Danny just gave him a dismissive look and waved him down. "Please. I stopped believing your invulnerable act years ago. As long as you stay conscious enough to eat your damn soup, that's all I care about."

Steve gratefully slumped back down on the couch. "Shouldn't you be at home taking care of Grace?"

"So says the man who was scheming with my daughter just this morning to get me out of the house," Danny called from the kitchen, which was filled with the sounds of heating soup. "I accept the fact that some fuss-free solitude may be an important part of her healing process, but I'm physically incapable of doing that when I'm in the house." He came back into the living room, setting both a bowl of soup and a glass of milk on the coffee table. "But she knows all about her idiot uncle who tried to get himself drowned today, and we both agreed that checking on you was a worthy enough cause to get me out of the house for a little while."

Steve picked up the bowl, eating a careful spoonful. Yeah, Danny could get a little overwhelming when he was in caretaker mode, but it warmed him every single time. "You know soup isn't actually a cure for nearly running out of oxygen, right?"

Danny pointed a warning finger at him as he sat down next to him on the couch. "Hey, if there was a way to get you surgically implanted with self- preservation I would absolutely do that. Until someone invents that, however, we're both gonna have to deal with the soup."

Steve's chest tightened, and he had to forcibly remind himself to be careful. "Rachel knows to call your cell phone, right?" he asked, keeping his voice deliberately light. "In case she calls Grace before you've made it back home."

Danny shifted to give him a narrow-eyed look. "What's this obsession with Rachel all of a sudden?"

Friends were interested in each other's love lives, right? Danny was always doing it, and Steve wasn't nearly as good at reciprocating. He'd never felt that Melissa was right for Danny, but now that she was gone he couldn't ignore the connection between Danny and Rachel. They'd made two amazing children together, hadn't they? Them getting back together would reunite a family.

Shouldn't he want Danny to be happy?

But even Steve was self-aware enough to recognize how desperate and ridiculously fake all of that sounded, so he ate another spoonful of soup. "I saw you both at Grace's party," he said finally. "You looked happy together."

Danny's brow lowered. "What we looked like is a pair of ex-spouses who may, miraculously, be on their way to becoming friends again. That's it."

Steve kept his focus on the soup, watching Danny out of the corner of his eye. "Friendship is a good foundation for more."

An emotion Steve couldn't identify flickered across Danny's face, but he didn't say anything for a moment as he settled back against the couch. "While that's true, I can promise you Rachel and I won't be building anything more than we already have. We're raising kids together, but I finally figured out she's not the person I want to spend the rest of my life with."

The certainty in Danny's voice warmed and worried Steve in the same moment. He might not be getting back together with Rachel, it sounded like he was getting serious about finding someone. "Do you have an idea who you _do_ want to spend the rest of your life with?"

Danny hesitated, like he hadn't expected the conversation to go in this particular direction. "What are you, Oprah?"

"I'm serious, Danny." Maybe if he had some idea, he could brace himself. "What kind of woman are you looking for?"

Exasperation moved across Danny's face. "Okay, fine." His hands lifted in a "what can you do" gesture. "I'd need a real partner, for one thing. Someone I could count on, no matter what."

The idea of some faceless woman being Danny's partner made him ache, but he pushed aside. Danny's happiness was what mattered. "What else?"

Danny sighed, like he was giving up. "Someone who I could always trust, who I know wouldn't keep anything important from me. Someone who I could just be myself around, because I would know they really cared about me and not just some mythical set of expectations they need me to meet."

Steve nodded, recognizing the scars from Danny's marriage to Rachel. He'd been an idiot to even suggest she was an acceptable option. He took another bite of soup, pretending that every shred of his attention wasn't focused on Danny. "Those are all good things."

Danny didn't move, going on as if Steve hadn't spoken. "I'd want someone who could make me laugh, even when they drove me crazy. Someone who would love my children just as much as I do, and be there for them no matter what." He closed his eyes. "Someone who I would want to call in the middle of one of the worst nights of my life, because I was this close to breaking and he was the only one who had any chance of holding me together."

Steve went absolutely still as the last sentence registered. There was no _possible_ way Danny could have meant that like it sounded. Like it was _Steve_ he was talking about.

Very, very carefully, he set the bowl back down on the coffee table. "Danny..."

Steve had just enough time to see self- recrimination flash across Danny's face before he pushed himself to his feet. "Not a chance." He headed into the kitchen, radiating tension with every line of his body. "I didn't say it to guilt something more out of you. I just wanted to shut you up about Rachel."

Steve stared after him, breath frozen in his lungs. He had to have misheard him somehow, or be misinterpreting it in some way that would be obvious to anyone else who heard it. If he said anything, he could be screwing up the most important relationship in his life.

But if he _didn't_ say anything, he would never forgive himself.

"But I have more," Steve said into the silence, voice a rasp. "I just never thought you wanted it."

For a moment, there was only a silence so heavy it threatened to double Steve over. Then, finally, he heard the quiet sound of Danny walking back into view. There was almost no expression on his face, like he was holding himself as carefully as Steve was, but his eyes held the same mixture of hope and terror burning in Steve's chest. "And if I did?" he asked quietly, voice rough with emotion.

Steve swallowed, his gaze locked with Danny's. "Then you'd get all of it." There was a pressure in his chest, like his heart was trying like hell to burst out of him and head straight for his partner. "It's been yours for a long time, anyway."

Danny's expression transformed, like he'd just gotten every Christmas all at once and couldn't quite handle it. Then he was moving, and that first step was like an electric shock to Steve's system. Then he was up as well, heading for Danny like a magnet being yanked toward its opposite pole.

The kiss was what watching fireworks felt like, light and heat and so much beauty it could take your breath away. Steve gave himself over to it completely, every barrier inside him flung wide open, and Danny poured himself back into Steve like he was trying to fill up an ocean. It was, without a doubt, the absolute best moment of Steve's entire life.

When they broke apart, Danny kept holding on like he was afraid Steve would disappear at any moment. "You _have_ to come home with me," he managed, looking up at Steve like there was even the most distant possibility he might say no. "I absolutely cannot leave the kids alone tonight, but the idea of letting you go right now is just about the worst thing I can think of."

Steve leaned his forehead against Danny's, undone. "I'll go anywhere you want me." Then he smiled, happiness like sunlight in his veins. "Especially if you make me pancakes in the morning."

Danny breathed out a laugh, pulling him down for another kiss. "I'll even butter them for you."

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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